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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25712449">a bloody heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keira_63/pseuds/Keira_63'>Keira_63</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Klaroline One-Shots [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Vampire Diaries &amp; Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, AU episode 2x2, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Caroline pulls out a heart, Character Death, Damon Salvatore Bashing, Episode: Brave New World, F/M, First Meeting, Klaroline, Klaus is delighted, Not Caroline or Klaus, Past Abuse, Revenge, references to past abuse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:54:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,760</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25712449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keira_63/pseuds/Keira_63</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Caroline wakes as a vampire she is thirsty, confused and ready to rip Damon’s throat out. A mysterious vampire called Klaus offers some advice about going for the heart.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Caroline Forbes &amp; Klaus Mikaelson, Caroline Forbes/Klaus Mikaelson</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Klaroline One-Shots [13]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1014627</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>223</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>a bloody heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries - the original books were written by L J Smith and the TV show was developed by Julie Plec and Kevin Williamson. This story is the product of their characters and world and my imagination.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Caroline wakes thirsty.</p>
<p>She grabs the glass of water at her side and gulps it down quickly, but for some reason it doesn’t help at all.</p>
<p>She looks around but can’t see anything else to drink. Deciding that she’ll have to leave her room to find something she gets out of bed gingerly, expecting the aches and pains associated with being in a car crash.</p>
<p>She feels fine, however. In fact, apart from her thirst (an odd, burning kind that seems to get worse every second), she feels absolutely fantastic, like she’s in the best shape of her life.</p>
<p>She frowns down at her hospital gown – uncomfortable <em>and </em>ugly – but she decides that she can’t be bothered to change, not when she wants a drink so badly.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>A nurse passes by and Caroline calls out to her, asking if she can have some water. The nurse nods and walks off. A minute later she’s back with a cup and jug filled with water. When she steps into the room Caroline raises her head quickly as she notices the delicious smell.</p>
<p>The burning in her throat intensifies and she finds herself almost hypnotised by a vein in the nurse’s neck. Suddenly, she doesn’t care about water at all, only that beautiful vein and the blood she can hear pumping around the nurse’s body.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She barely remembers what happens next, only that she moves faster than she’s ever been capable of before, that she nearly kills someone in her desperation for blood, and that she’s never felt so out of control in her life.</p>
<p>Caroline has no idea how she manages to leave the poor nurse alive, but as soon as she comes to her senses she flees the hospital, thankful for the cover of night hiding her from prying eyes.</p>
<p>She doesn’t go home, terrified that in her frenzy she might hurt her mom, and as she stumbles through the woods she realises that memories are slipping back into place in her head, things she’s forgotten.</p>
<p>Things Damon Salvatore has made her forget.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Her head hurts and the memories throw her mind into disarray. She can’t quite believe everything that has been going on – a whole supernatural world her friends are mixed up in … all the things they haven’t told her.</p>
<p>So much they didn’t prevent.</p>
<p>She wants to be sick when she thinks about what Damon did to her, especially as she realises her so-called friends barely lifted a finger to try and stop him.</p>
<p>Fury rises inside her. Caroline gets angry about sloppy cheerleaders and poor organisation, about the way her mom is <em>always </em>working and that her dad barely ever calls.</p>
<p>She’s never been as angry as she is now, though.</p>
<p>She has never wanted to kill someone as much as she wants to kill Damon Salvatore.</p>
<p>And she thinks she might be able to do it. She’s still fuzzy on the details, her memories muddled, but she knows she isn’t human anymore.</p>
<p>She remembers someone with Elena’s face killing her … or maybe it had really been Elena herself – she’s starting to think she doesn’t know her friends at all.</p>
<p>Caroline died … and then woke up.</p>
<p>She’s a vampire.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>She goes from the woods to the school. She can hear the noise from the carnival but she stays away from the crowds, worried that she’ll hurt an innocent person in the same way she did the nurse.</p>
<p>When Damon shows up in the empty corridor, it seems almost like fate.</p>
<p>“Hey, blondie. They let you out?”</p>
<p>She can’t stand the way he talks to her like everything’s normal, like he didn’t terrorise and compel her so that he could use her for blood and sex.</p>
<p>“I remember,” she tells him simply.</p>
<p>He sighs in exasperation, “what do you remember?”</p>
<p>“I remember how you manipulated me. You pushed me around, abused me, erased my memories, fed on me.”</p>
<p>“You’re crazy.”</p>
<p>“The memories have been coming back, in pieces.”</p>
<p>Not fast enough for Caroline’s liking. There are still gaps, she knows, and she absolutely <em>hates</em> that.</p>
<p>“You can’t remember,” he tells her, an arrogant air about him that tells her he doesn’t consider her any threat at all, “it’s impossible. I mean, unless you were becoming a …”</p>
<p>She sees the tiniest amount of confusion on his face and she smirks.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He reaches for her but she moves quicker than him. He still doesn’t think she can be a danger to him and she uses that – she’s been exploiting the way people underestimate her for years and she’s a pro.</p>
<p>She plans to just throw him away from her, make a show of strength, but at the last minute she acts on instincts she is pretty sure she’s never had before. She manages to get her hands around her neck and she wrenches.</p>
<p>He falls to the floor like a puppet who has lost his strings. She likes that.</p>
<p>“You suck,” she mutters at his prone body.</p>
<p>It’s not her best insult, not by a long shot (it’s really quite lame, in fact), but it’s appropriate considering what they both are.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>“Well, aren’t you an interesting little thing.”</p>
<p>Caroline spins round to find a man watching her. No … not a man, a monster. There is definitely something inhuman about him, and an air that screams danger – this one isn’t like Damon, he’s so much <em>more</em>.</p>
<p>“Who are you?” she asks suspiciously, body tensing as she prepares to run if she has to.</p>
<p>She’s thirsty and scared and furious, and snapping Damon’s neck has only slightly helped with that.</p>
<p>“My name is Klaus.”</p>
<p>He says it with the smug tone of someone who usually gets a reaction, but she only watches him warily. She’s never heard his name before, but there are clearly a lot of things her friends have been keeping from her.</p>
<p>“I visited the hospital,” he continues, “Katerina thinks she’s clever, creating a little pre-made sacrifice in the hopes that I’ll spare her life. Leaving you alone was careless – baby vampires aren’t exactly known for self-control – and yet you didn’t kill anyone in the hospital. Surrounded by blood, newly woken and you made it all the way out without leaving a trail of bodies. Very curious.”</p>
<p>“I …” she pauses for a moment, confused by his words, “who is Katerina?”</p>
<p>“Elena then,” he says, with a smile that suggests he knows something she doesn’t and isn’t about to share it any time soon.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>His gaze moves then, from her to Damon’s prone body on the floor.</p>
<p>He flashes over to her so fast that she can’t stop the little scream she lets out. He eyes her with amusement and then tugs her down so they are both leaning over Damon’s body.</p>
<p>“Good work snapping his neck, sweetheart,” he says as he guides one of her hands to a certain spot on Damon’s chest, “but he will wake soon enough. This is where you should be if you want his heart.”</p>
<p>Caroline looks at him with wide eyes. Is he really telling her how to pull someone’s heart out?</p>
<p>“It’s the easiest way to kill him. And that’s what you want, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>Caroline looks down at the face of the person who has compelled, raped and terrorised her, who has told her she is worthless and that he will kill her eventually.</p>
<p>Her nails dig easily into the flesh beneath her hand. She looks again at Klaus, whose smile is wide and delighted.</p>
<p>Caroline has never considered herself to be a particularly bad person. She always tries, even when it usually seems like she’ll never measure up to golden girl Elena. So, she’s not perfect, but she’s not terrible either. Still, good people don’t generally commit murder and Caroline, it seems, is about to shove her hand into someone’s chest cavity with very little guilt.</p>
<p>She pushes away her slight reservations, though. Damon deserves it. What he did to Caroline was horrible enough, especially since she knows he’ll never apologise, but she thinks he’s probably done it before, likely to countless others. People like Damon rarely change.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Klaus stands, but still watches her closely, “go on, Caroline,” he encourages her.</p>
<p>She wonders idly how he knows her name, but her thoughts are too focused on Damon to really think about it.</p>
<p>It is possible she could kneel here all day, turning over the choice she faces in her mind. However, by then Damon will be awake and she’ll have lost her best chance at proper revenge.</p>
<p>Her hand digs in further almost on instinct, pushing through Damon’s chest with an ease that would be alarming if she wasn’t so caught up in her feeling of vindication.</p>
<p>Caroline grasps Damon’s heart and pulls it straight through his rib cage and up to her lips, the strong smell of blood making her head go dizzy and her throat <em>burn</em>.</p>
<p>She bites into the heart without any of the disgust her human self would have felt. Instead, she revels in it.</p>
<p>There is a monster under her skin now, and it wants, wants, <em>wants</em>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She hears a murmured noise of approval and finds Klaus watching her with dark eyes.</p>
<p>For a brief moment she considers offering him the remains of the heart. Manners are ingrained into her, and who knows whether there is an etiquette for this sort of thing. She’s still hungry, though, and the blood really is delicious.</p>
<p>When she’s finished, Damon’s corpse next to her, there is blood everywhere. She’s sure she looks a state, but Klaus still seems to find her fascinating.</p>
<p>She can’t remember the last time someone looked at her the way he does, like she’s special.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>He holds out a hand to her, clearly unbothered by her bloody state, “do you want to know more, Caroline, about this new life of yours?”</p>
<p>She eyes him carefully. It’s true that he’s helped her with Damon, but is it really wise to trust someone who smiles with teeth as he watches a murder up close?</p>
<p>Still, he’s offering her information that no one else has seen fit to give her. Her friends have left her clueless and vulnerable in a dangerous world, but Klaus can clearly give her the knowledge she so desperately needs to survive.</p>
<p>And Caroline wants to live.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She reaches out and places her hand in his, allowing him to pull her to her feet.</p>
<p>It feels significant, like nothing will ever be the same again.</p>
<p>“Oh, the fun we’ll have, love,” he tells her.</p>
<p>She finds herself smiling back at him. She can’t wait.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading.  Hope you enjoyed it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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